Gillum

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Even three years into retirement, Gillum applies his philosophy to othetr small businesses as a volunteer business coach specializint in sales and marketing for the local chapterof SCORE, a nonprofit that counsels smalo businesses and is a partnedr of the . Gillum helps businesse s grow salesthrough marketing, product placement and branding. Entrepreneurs tend to have a brilliantf idea and the skill set for their business but lack the skill set on the marketing he said. It is even more important to focus on salew and marketing when the economyis weak, “becausew you’ve got to be better than the next guy.
” Gillum helps businessw owners create a sales and marketing plan by first researching their history, such as how many clients they have and theirr average sales per client. The busineses owners then collect data on their targegt market and their competitors to develop a marketing strategy to go afteer new groups andexpand prospects. Part of that strategy is to perform a case studyh on existing clients to developo success stories and credentials for marketing tofuture clients. The finap step is launching the campaign by presenting thosed marketing tools to theselect audience.
Gillum favors grassroots marketinbg such as direct mailings and following up with prospects by phonde rather thansending e-mails. “Chuck laid out a strateg y to develop an effectiv marketing campaign at a level Premier had neverd takenon before,” said Julia Fox, owner of . Premiere does process and project management consulting for other such as if a company needss a more efficient process to promoting withinj or has a highturnove rate. Fox met Gillum when she attended oneof SCORE’ss marketing events at about three months ago.
“I had done a couple seminars and readsome books, but I kept thinkingy this is bigger than a book,” she Fox started Premier in 2002, but was looking for ways to expanx the company and its client base in the current Through periodic visits with Fox recently completed her data gathering from existing clientsz and is now putting together a marketing plan to launcb in January. “The bottom line is, you have to have more client sto diversify” the clieny base, she said. “If my clientsd are diversified, it helps Premiere maintain viability in both good anduncertai markets.
” Gillum has owned several from an arcade in McHenry, to a concrete edging companty in Apopka. He was also a vice president of sales and marketin g for several companies basesd in Florida for16 years. Most recentlt Gillum worked at Jacksonville-based , an online and electronic paymentssoftwarew company. He retired at the end of 2005 and has volunteerefd at SCOREever since.